Union Lake sewer service examined

Nov. 30, 2012

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MILLVILLE — The city and Cumberland County are drawing a line in the sandy eastern shore of Union Lake as New Jersey mulls changes to a proposed map that would say how much of that area may have sewage service in the future.

There are about 400 acres of privately owned land in that area. Whether the owner can extend sewer lines into it, and how far, is hugely important to its potential as a site for housing or possibly commercial development.

The issue already is a heated four-sided debate among Millville officials, land owner Wawa Inc., environmental groups and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

On Tuesday night, the county Board of Freeholders voted unanimously to adopt the same position as the city has on the proposed sewer service map. That joint position basically is to implore the state to keep open options and to protect landowner property rights, even if it delays the regulatory process.

The freeholder vote followed discussions with concerned Millville officials, including Vice Mayor and Freeholder-elect Joseph Derella.

In June, the county Planning Board sent to the state a map that included its suggestions on what parts of the county should have sewer service. The map included Millville and the lake area, but a key condition the county also included was that the map was just a starting point for discussions.

Deputy Freeholder Director Thomas Sheppard, who offered the resolution, worried the state may decide on its own where to draw boundaries at the lake.

“I think we need to encourage development where we can,” Sheppard said. “We don’t want to be the poorest county in the state forever.”

“They’re doing their best to support the city of Millville — and other municipalities involved with major projects — what their thoughts and concerns are,” Derella said Wednesday. “Our position has always been that we support the rights of the property owner to go through the appeal process to see if they can demonstrate why their parcel of land should be included in what they call the Water Management Plan, WMP. We’ve never wavered from that position — whether it be a major developer or a private landowner.”

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Derella, who also is on the city’s Planning Board, said Millville wants “the ability to have that map altered if the property owner is successful” in appealing to the state for sewage service.

Prior to 2008, Millville officials note, all of the city was entitled to sewage service.

“Meaning any landowner, after proper Planning Board approval and state permits, could apply and the state would recognize that they could extend sewer at their own cost,” City Engineer John Knoop said.

New Jersey, in 2008, adopted water management regulations. Those regulations have led to the current contentious negotiations over who gets sewer access. The city has had to battle for that service even to its own designated development areas.

Knoop said the city has allowed private landowners, including Wawa, to carry out habitat studies and to lobby the state.

“If they spend their own money, who are we to dispute them doing that?” Knoop said. “That’s all we’re doing.”

Knoop said the problem is the state making municipalities and counties enforce its regulations. “We don’t have the expertise and we didn’t create the map,” he said.

Wawa originally suggested keeping a 330-foot-wide buffer, or foraging area, between the lake and the nearest developed areas. The company, as of June, was offering 600 feet as a compromise.

The discovery there of eagle nests, including one still known to be active, is a problem for Wawa because of regulations establishing large buffer areas to protect the raptors.

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